{"id":558,"date":"2022-06-03T17:20:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T16:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/?p=558"},"modified":"2022-07-23T11:46:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T10:46:13","slug":"adventures-in-slipcasting-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/2022\/06\/adventures-in-slipcasting-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Slipcasting – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lifetime ago, I was at art college and worked a lot with plaster and casting. I love plaster, smooth slippy, and really useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before that on my foundation I made one slipcast thing (actually two of the same thing). I modified a vase from a charity shop and made a plaster mould. Badly fired in an old waste paper bin, it still survives. I have always been a bit of a bodger. This is one reason why I am so in love with tiny pottery, it’s proper, real ceramics and glazes, but on a domestic scale – bodged to perfection in my kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I’m looking for a way to reliably make the same thing over and over. I tried slab building small cups, but after taking 30 minutes each to make, they both exploded. I glazed one back together and use it, but I fell out of love with slab building quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next: Slip casting. I have always loved when you see plastic cups made out of ceramic, so I set my sights on paper sauce pots from burger joints. I started with Maccy D’s pots. These are small, but a good test. Intended to move on up to 5 Guys pots which are about 42mm high, will hold a good shot of booze, and will fit into my Microwave kiln.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down my local high street I tried to get some plaster of paris, but could only find fine finishing plaster. Some of the internet said it would work. The rest, no so much. But I only take on information that matched my worldview, so went for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Plaster in paper cups so they are stiff enough to cast.<\/li>
  2. PVA on the cups and a thin clay strip to reinforce the underside of the rim.<\/li>
  3. Make a 2 part mould with openings in the top that will let me pour slip in.<\/li>
  4. Make slip by stirring up all my clay offcuts in water.<\/li>
  5. Dry mould<\/li>
  6. Secure mould with band, pour in slip and leave to set a little.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    My slip was a little runny\/thin so it took a while to build up a thick enough skin. Before I started casting, the mould broke into 4 bits, but good enough for a test. Anyhow, 2 casts, one survived, proved that it will work in principle. Moulds in the bin! Amazon order placed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Version 2: Bigger and better. Not really.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Decided that a one-part mould would also work I followed the same steps above with the plan to chip out the plaster from the cups. Chipping out the plaster took ages and damaged the walls. FAIL! And there was a bubble. In the bin!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Version 3: Softly-Softly. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    So the next idea was to fill the cups with expanding foam that I have. This will make them hold their shape under the plaster, but be soft enough to pull out. Lovely, all so good. But then as I’m pouring the plaster I realise they are full of air and will rise up in the plaster. They rose up. Back to the drawing board? Nah, just hold them down for a bit and hope for the best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wahoo!! They come out perfectly, left a lovely impression and no bubbles. Brilliant. Really excited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    TODO: trim the rim and dry the mould before using them. That’s for next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Next part – the casting!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A lifetime ago, I was at art college and worked a lot with plaster and casting. I love plaster, smooth slippy, and really useful. Before that on my foundation I made one slipcast thing (actually two of the same thing). I modified a vase from a charity shop and made a plaster mould. Badly fired in an old waste paper… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pottery","xfolkentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fluster.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}